George’s Point of View

Bravo to American Airlines which is (finally) putting their Airbus A300’s to bed. American’s spokesman Tim Smith announced “One, we are in the process of cutting capacity. Two, these airplanes are a likely candidate for retirement, in that they are older than most of the airplanes in our fleet, and three, the A300 requires different training and maintenance from the other airplanes in American’s fleet.” We should expect to see a greener, more responsible American AIrlines now. This is part of the fleet renewal effort introduced in American’s 2007 Environmental Responsibility Report when they began replacing their MD-80s with new 737-800s.

I don’t know about being clean and green, environmentally renewed and downsized. I do know that these are 21 year old planes. They’re old enough to vote. (And –I am told–old enough to drive a pilot to drink.)

Think about it…In 1987 when these planes were first introduced into American’s fleet, Charles and Diana had just separated; Jim Bakker got caught playing hanky panky with Jessica Hahn; Klaus Barbie was convicted of Nazi war crimes; Andy Warhol died; an earthquake in LA injured 100 and killed 6; and most unbelievable of all, the Cosby show and Cheers were still in their first run.

I guess time flies when you’re flying deathtraps.

As a frequent flyer who does not trust the A300, I applaud that decision–though it does seem to be a no brainer to retire 21 year old planes.